December 26, 2003

The Return of the King

By PETER M. NICHOLS

VIOLENCE Combatants are graphically hacked, clubbed, crushed, skewered, burned and otherwise slaughtered and maimed. By now it's all pretty routine.

SEX None.

PROFANITY Exclamations but no cusses.

FOR WHICH CHILDREN?

AGES 8-10 Areas of parental objection might logically include the extreme violence and, to a lesser extent, the movie's length. That said, many kids will be fine throughout an entertainment with many engaging characters to follow and root for.

AGES 11-13 Unless parents have objections, the film is a natural.

At the start of this trilogy's third leg we learn how the bug-eyed little Gollum got that way. Ring lust has turned him leathery and treacherous, but he remains the only guide available to Frodo (Mr. Wood) on his way through the wilderness to the black kingdom of Mordor.

Now bearer of the One Ring, as Gollum was before becoming disfigured by its power, Frodo must fling it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom. Aiming to claim the ring himself, Sauron, dark lord of Mordor, also plans the extermination of humans and all creatures of Middle Earth.

To help with this he has put together an army of fearsome Orcs, whose growling, computer-generated ranks number 200,000 to 600,000, depending on which account of the movie you read, backed up by gigantic trolls, swooping dragons and 80-foot-high elephants.

The entire gathering marches on the fortress of Minas Tirith, the last stronghold of Middle Earth. In defense of the place, King Theoden (Mr. Hill) and Aragorn (Mr. Mortenson) rally anyone who can climb on a horse. A huge battle begins, with giant catapults lobbing boulders the size of Volkswagens and storms of arrows taking down attackers and defenders, several thousand at a clip.

As in the other "Rings" films, the humans manage a late cavalry charge, so to speak, this time with a mob of ghost warriors, of all things, scouted up by Aragorn. After the combat, there is the ring to be got rid of (not easily), a true king to be crowned and many personal loose ends to be tied up over the course of an endgame that sorts out everybody happily but takes an eternity in the process.